#99 - in the weeds.

last night, after weeks of mary-louise parker beckoning at me from the sides of buses & subway walls & random places on the internet, the fifth season of weeds finally began. at the end of last season, she & the family were living down by the border, in san diego. nancy (parker) has just revealed to the tijuana mayor/crime boss (esteban, played by demian bichir) that she's pregnant with his child & he's just revealed to her that he knows she's been talking with the FBI about his drugs/guns/women smuggling tunnel from tijuana to san diego. her brother-in-law has fallen in love with her and her two sons are both growing & selling pot. kevin nealon's doug wilson character is still a stoned child trapped in an adult's body & celia hodes (elizabeth perkins) has been kidnapped by her estranged oldest daughter down in mexico while her ex-husband & youngest daughter are enjoying life, free of her insanity.

the "little boxes" theme that we heard during the first three seasons is now long gone from the opening credits. in its place are opening shots with a pot leaf & the words "weeds. created by jenji kohan" creatively worked into the frame. the first episode's opening shot was of a woman in stirrups & that faded into a shot of the ultrasound, so by all indications, this season's going to have a bunch to do with babies & the parent-child dynamic. probably drug smuggling & other craziness in there as well.

the first episode definitely got me excited for the new season. there's a great scene where nancy & esteban are in a mexican doctor's office & nancy has no idea what's going on because everyone's speaking spanish & we see her forced to forgo her independence because of esteban's forceful insistence that she let the doctor determine whether she's really carrying his son. there's a running joke throughout where celia's daughter tries to get people, one after another, to pay a ransom for her mom & each one turns her down. there's also a weird scene near the end where nancy's sitting in an outdoor mall & a flash mob forms, breaking into a dance number. she asks a kid next to her what's going on. he replies, "a flash mob" & she asks, "why?" his answer--"because it's cool." i'm not sure where they're going with that one, but ok. i'm intrigued.

it's been a solid series through the first four seasons, largely due to the ever-changing supporting cast. guillermo diaz is still on the show & still awesome as guillermo. it seems like so long ago that martin donovan was on the show, but along with albert brooks last season, page kennedy during the first three & short appearances by zooey deschanel & mary-kate olsen, the supporting actors are often what makes the show so different from season to season & even from week to week. this season, jennifer jason leigh is part of the cast (as nancy's sister), so we've got that to look forward to once she shows up. i hope she pulls some single white female shit. that'd be sweet.

#99 - in the weeds.
snack: campo de montleban cheese & new york style everything bagel crisps
drink: smuttynose imperial stout



i'm friggin' fancy like nancy!...only because it rhymes though. with my weeds, i'm having campo de montleban cheese & new york style everything bagel crisps. i picked up the cheese yesterday at bierkraft (the local gourmet beer, cheese & eats spot) after first giving their cheese descriptions (& prices) a good once over. in the end, i went with the campo de montleban because it both is made from the teats of three mammals--a goat, a cow & a sheep--and is only $14.95 a pound. no way was i paying $30 a pound for some cheese, especially if i was just going to eat it while watching tv by myself. $30+ cheeses are strictly for engagements with the ladies.

it's a spanish cheese (la mancha) & isn't one of those stinky cheeses that you eat to show people you have a refined palette. if i was a cheese expert, i'd probably say that it has a partly sharp taste & a firm but slightly creamy texture. since most of the bagel chips were conveniently broken into smaller pieces already, i cut the cheese up into little squares & paired the two up. the sharpness of the cheese & the saltiness of the everything bagel chips make a nice combo.

for my beverage, i went with a smuttynose imperial stout, straight from good ol' portsmouth, nh. it's one of smuttynose's big beer series, which, according to the label, consists of "big beers in big bottles, released seasonally in very limited quantities." this one comes out in mid-february, so it's relatively fresh. the label also suggests pairing it with "fresh fruit & rich cheese on a cold, winter's night or lay it up & savor it with a friend for a special summer treat." i took one part of that recommendation to heart.

since it's a stout, it's a dark beer with a rich flavor. after a while with the cheese, it came in handy for getting the cheesy taste out of my mouth, but by the end of the bottle, after 22 oz, i was imperially full. sometimes i enjoy the big, flavorful beers, but at times like tonight, they're a little too much to handle...but since this one's made by fellow new hampshirites, i'll let it slide this time. sometimes you just have to live free or die, folks.